Notices 2024

Also note that this page is in reverse chronological order. That means newer items are at the TOP of the page.


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PRODUCER, DIRECTOR, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
When compiling the annual lists of radio plays on this website I often wondered about directors, producers and the difference (if any) between them. I used to think that 'producer' and 'director' meant the same thing , but now, some plays seem to have both. Anyway, last week I was talking to a person with a lot of studio experience at the BBC and he explained what these terms mean in 2024.

"....It always used to be the case that Radio Drama producers directed and produced (ie a producer would be responsible for selling the project, working with the writer, casting, and directing).

Over the last 20 years it has become more common for directors to work with other directors on larger projects - so one might be designated as 'producer' if the other was directing an episode, although it might also be common for both producers to get a producer credit, or a director credit (Our Liam of Lourdes, produced by Jessica Dromgoole and Sally Avens, etc).

This was already complicated enough, but once Independent production started it became mandatory for all Indie productions made for the BBC to have an Executive Producer. In many cases this role simply involves listening to another producer's work and signing off the compliance.

For that reason I think I would suggest that these Exec'd productions do not - strictly speaking - belong on a list of a producer's work".

In the light of this, I will be omitting 'Executive producer" credits from future radio play summaries. (...thanks for the explanation, 'anon' - you know who you are - ND.)

27 Nov 24

RANDOM SHOTS
I have been asked by R4X for a recording of 'Random Shots', a collection of eccentric correspondence from The Shooting Times, read by Michael Aldridge and Paul Eddington. This was actually a BBC commercial release in 1990. To my surprise I recorded it at the time; some of it off-air and the rest possibly from a friend's copy; I can't remember. The quality seems ok; it will be sent to R4X shortly.

27 Nov 24

RADIO 4 AFTERNOON PLAY LISTINGS
I am continuing to compile these from the RT and elsewhere. They are now updated to the end of September.

8 Oct 24

JEFFREY ARCHER
I have been asked by R4X for a recording of 'A Matter of Honour', an adventure serial by Jeffrey Archer from 1986, which I have supplied. The drama is dramatised by Brian Sibley from the novel. The recording quality seems fair, and the rights are cleared, so there's a good chance this will be broadcast soon. I think the original recording came from the late Penny Fabb. There was also a commercial release about 30 years ago.

30 Sep 24

TED ALLBEURY
I have been asked by R4X for a recording of 'The Other Side of Silence', an adventure serial by Ted Allbeury from about 50 years ago. I've suppplied this; the quality is fair, but it will need some technical work doing to make it broadcastable. Fingers crossed that the budget will be available and that this will occur fairly soon.

20 Aug 24

MALPRACTICE IN THE BUILDING INDUSTRY
Stephen Wyatt has written a remarkable play "A House Called Insanity" about the true story of Elsy Borders who challenged malpractice in the building industry in the 1930s by refusing to pay her mortgage. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It should be online for a while; listen to it while you can. Broadcast date was 27 Jul 2024. With a production team like this you can't go wrong... Elsy Borders.........Anne-Marie Duff, Jim Borders......Karl Davies, Roxburgh......Sam Dale, Librarian.....Jenny Funnell, Judge.......Nigel Anthony, Agent......Andrew Branch, Michael.......Harry Myers, Pamela .....Betsy Horsfall, Directed by Martin Jenkins. Sound Design by David Thomas. Production Co-ordinator: Sarah Tombling. Production Manager: Sarah Wright. Indie (Pier). A contender for the Tinniswood next time, perhaps?

11 Aug 24

LIGHT PROGRAMME LISTING, 1958
Stephen has now completed the Light programme 1958 listing and this is online.

11 Aug 24

RADIO 4 LISTING, 1978
Stephen's listing for dramas broadcast on Radio 4 in 1978 is now complete and online. Some of the BBC information was incomplete but the gaps are covered by information elsewhere on this website. The link for the new page is here: 1978 R4 . Lots of well-known producers on there: Glyn Dearman, Christopher Venning, Martin Jenkins, Tony Cliff, David H. Godfrey .....

4 Aug 24

LIGHT PROGRAMME
Stephen Shaw has compiled another listing for us - for the Light Programme (which eventually became Radio 2) in 1957. Lots of interesting reading. A very few of these plays have survived as recordings. Thanks again to Stephen for his work on our behalf. He is also approaching the end of the listing for Radio 4, 1978.

16 Jul 24

ANDY JORDAN
Two more plays from Andy Jordan recently. Andy writes...

"In June a play I directed, called Jubilee!, by Garth Bardsley and Ray Shell, went out on BBC Radio 3. It features Samuel West, Sophia Nomvete, Kerry Shale and Simon Callow, among others, plus the London Voices choir, music direction Ben Parry, and has original music by Sarah Llewellyn. It is now on BBC Sounds, and here is the link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00202zc (Drama on 3).

Jubilee! dramatises the true and extraordinary story of The Jubilee Singers, c. 1878, a group of once enslaved young people from the first-ever University in America to accept black students just after the Civil War. The Jubilee Singers ended up singing before President’s and Royalty around the world (including Queen Victoria), introducing white audiences to spirituals and gospel music. The group is still in existence.

Also in June, a play I directed for BBC Radio 4 was broadcast, called Casting Shadows, by Jonathan Holloway. It also had a large cast, including Karl Davies, Jenny Funnell, Paul Bazely, Roger Alborough and Tom Cotcher, with film historian Frank Gray narrating.

The play is a quirky, light-hearted drama-documentary, dramatising the remarkable achievements of Brighton’s ‘pioneer filmmakers’. Between the years 1895 and 1905 this extraordinary group of men and women had a significant influence on the development of cinema as we know it today, inventing many of the essential techniques of cinematic storytelling, a decade before Hollywood launched itself in the 1910s. It is now on BBC Sounds, and here is the link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0020jbm (Drama on 4)".

16 Jul 24

THE HOUSE ON THE STRAND
Our recording of Daphne du Maurier's "The House on the Strand" from 1973 will be broadcast on 11 July on Radio 4 Extra and will then be available on BBC Sounds.

3 Jul 24

NIGHTINGALES
I was interested to hear earlier in the month a programme about a famous cellist accompanying a nightingale many years ago, and to hear the recording. The cellist was Beatrice Harrison and the event was 100 years ago. But I couldn't help thinking that playing a cello alongside a nightingale was a bit like accompanying Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with a kazoo or a swanee whistle.

So here's a a real-life nightingale, recorded by my friend Steve Crane of Huncote, on a recent holiday to one of the Greek islands. It lasts about three minutes, so listen and enjoy.

nightingale recording

14 Jun 24

DON WEBB
.... My friend Stephen Shaw writes as follows:

I'm sorry to report that Don died on 26th May 2024.

The Guardian published an obit:
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/may/30/don-webb-obituary

He was so busy writing for tv, his radio output was sadly rather somewhat limited, and was not always an easy listen, but always interesting.

4 Jun 24

BBC COMMISSIONING GUIDELINES
I have noticed that many programmes broadcast on Radio 4 are now listed as "EcoAudio certified" productions.

Presumably this means that everything in the programme is ecologically 'politically-correct' and that no criticism of Net Zero, wind turbines, EVs, ULEZ, banning diesel and petrol cars and gas boilers, building on flood plains(and similar lunacies) will be permitted.

Can anyone shed light on this?

19 May 24

If you wish to examine the BBC's 'sustainability' policy have a look at https://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/radio/sustainability. This is receiving a mixed reception. Obviously one should care for the environment and not inflict more pollution or deplete its resources more than absolutely necessary; it does not take an expert to work this out. But I sincerely hope this is not 'greenwashing' because if creativity is to be censored, this is not going to end well.

Anyway, if you visit the page you can judge for yourself. Thanks to Stephen Shaw for the link.

7 Jun 24

BBC BIAS AND THE LICENCE FEE
This is not a place for talking about politics. But when events take place which threaten the future of the BBC, and (from my perspective) radio drama in particular, politics cannot be ignored.

If the BBC's audience figures continue to drop, the licence fee will be reviewed and will probably be reduced; it may even disappear.

Output which alientates large parts of its audience must therefore be avoided. And this means that the BBC must become less biased. Its future depends on it.

The sins of the News and politics programmes cannot be allowed to lead to the demise of intelligent speech radio: arts, culture, drama, features, drama-documentaries and everything else for which the BBC is well-known.

Charles Moore wrote a thought-provoking piece in the Daily Telegraph (30 Apr) about his own appearance on 'Question Time' in which he noted considerable bias in the balance of the programme.

I was likewise disturbed to read these letters (which I have anonymised) in the same newspaper which illustrate my point:

1 May: SIR - Last week's 'Any Question's was a disgrace, which what sounded like an audience of left-wing activists whooping and cheering. The audience might have been carefully balanced, but over the radio it didn't sound that way.

Please, BBC, let us have political debate broadcast without the biased input of a noisy faction, particularly in the run-up to a general election. (PR, Kent)


1 May: SIR - I saw the episode of 'Question Time' to which Charles Moore refers and agree that the whole audience was left-wing. For instance, views were expressed that there should be no controls on illegal immigration and that anyone who wants a sick note should get one.

He said that legal migration was also a concern: the country cannot sustain the current levels. Yet not a single other voice commented on this.

In a BBC programme such as Question Time there really should be balance. (DB, Flintshire)


2 May - SIR - I must agree with PR (May 1) who objects to the 'whooping and cheering' of the Any Questions audience on Radio 4.

I used to listen regularly but rarely do now due to the audience bias displayed, regardless of the location of the programme. However, I did listen last week, and like him, was appalled.

The Labour and Green Party members were cheered after virtually every sentence they uttered, while the Conservative representative was laughed at on most points he raised - though they were important and he expressed them calmly.

As the BBC does not even pretend to offer any balance, I will not be listening again. (SF, Essex)

The BBC must get its house in order. Many topics are highly contentious - Ukraine, Gaza, alleged man-made climate change, energy generation, freedom of speech, to name just a few. These are highly complex issues and presenting them should be done with care and with balance.

The BBC's aim should be to inform, enlighten and entertain.

The people who make quality programmes - the majority of the output - must not have their jobs put at risk by tunnel-vision activists who seem intent on affecting our national broadcaster's financial future.

3 May 24

UK INTERNATIONAL AUDIO DRAMA FESTIVAL
This is now over, and the winners were announced on Friday evening. You can find information about this, and descriptions of the winning plays, on the Festival 2024 page. there is one award still to be allocated (audience award) which will be announced in just over a month, when all the votes are in.

31 Mar 24

DISASTER ZONE
Advertising the UK International Audio Drama Festival puts me in touch with a large number of radio writers and producers. The general opinion of radio drama commissioning at the BBC is that it's a disaster zone; it's reduced by 50% since 2017, most of that reduction taking place in the last 2 years. 600 hours down to 300 hours. It is horrendous. The only advice I can offer young people wanting to write radio drama for a living is - think of something else.

Not so many years ago there were many people who wrote significant numbers of radio plays over several decades, and they became experts in creating high-quality work. There were numerous salaried producers at the BBC and a large number of them worked solidly for 30+ years, many of them producing 1000+ plays in their careers.

There are still some people of that generation producing excellent work, and good new writers are emerging too, but the number of opportunities is much smaller than it was. It seems to me that if you're a young writer or producer, aspiring to create radio drama, you need to make sure you have a steady stream of income from other sources.

16 Mar 24

RADIO DRAMAS DONATED TO THE BBC
A large number of radio dramas have been returned to the BBC by a representative of a collectors' group (not us, this time). This must be good news. One hopes that a decent number of them will be broadcast in the near future. The rights will still have to be cleared, so do not expect a deluge. And "politically-incorrect" vintage material is unlikely to get through the BBC's filters without censoring.

13 Mar 24

RUNNING ORDER FOR AUDIO DRAMA FESTIVAL
This is now out - please look on the Festival web page (go back to main radio page and click on the link).

12 Mar 24

SHORTLIST FOR AUDIO DRAMA FESTIVAL
The preliminary shortlist for the festival is now decided. This is on the Festival web page - go to the link on the main radio page. There were 217 submissions and there are only about 50 slots in the 5 days for listening - so a lot of very good work won't be heard. But the event is a celebration of the radio drama medium - and the number of entries is very encouraging. We all need stories; it's what we are wired for. The listening programme will be published soon.

1 Mar 24

RECENT RADIO REVIEWS: HARRY TURNBULL
I'm pleased to report that Harry has reviewed a few more recent plays; I hope you enjoy reading his evaluations. Thoughtful, considered, waspish ... find them on Feb 2024 Reviews

15 Feb 24

AUDIO DRAMA FESTIVAL UPDATE
Marta Rebzda has again reached the finalist stage (ie the last 3) of the Audio Drama Awards for Best European Drama for her play 'This Word', which we heard at last year's audio drama festival. It is a beautifully-presented account of the 'displacement' policy - which effectively meant eviction - taking place in Poland after WW2 when the Polish borders were redrawn. The play described the heroic efforts of the Countess Roza and Count Jan Zamoyski in saving four hundred and sixty children from the children's concentration camp (you read that correctly) run by the Nazis at Zwierzyniec. I also note that Goldhawk essential's thriller serial 'Tagged' is in the running for Best Serial. The Audio Drama Award finalists have been announced - see the Audio Drama Awards page.

15 Feb 24

Update, 24 Mar: - this play won the Best European Drama Award.
Well done, Marta!

NIGHTMARE - update
This was broadcast a few days ago on R4X and is now on BBC Sounds 'listen-again'.
Programme details....... It’s nearly midnight and a storm is raging. A murderer has escaped from a secure facility and may be returning to the scene of his crime, a remote cottage.
By RD Wingfield. Cast: John Drummond .... John Graham, John Smith .... Hugh Dickson, Insp Thorpe .... Philip Voss, PC Drew .... Malcolm Gerard. Other parts: Jennifer Piercey, Andrew Branch, Gregory de Polnay. Producer: Glyn Dearman. First broadcast on R4 in Feb 1979.

RADIO DRAMA
As a writer who has written quite a number of plays, series and adaptations for BBC radio, it has been sad to see how the department has atrophied and the output has withered to half of what it was. It gave me my start as a professional writer. I am one of many.

Perhaps a good way to begin to spread the word about this much revered though little valued sector would be for the Guardian to have regular radio drama reviews, in the same way that it covers TV, films and theatre.

Moya O’Shea
London
(.....letter published in The Guardian 26 Jan 24; reproduced by permission - thanks, Moya)

27 Jan 24

NIGHTMARE
I have sent a recording of R.D.Wingfield's short drama "Nightmare" to Radio 4 Extra; this will be broadcast very soon. Originally broadcast 16 Feb 1979; Just Before Midnight. I've also supplied a 1973 recording of "The House on the Strand" which should be appearing at some stage.

23 Jan 24

NO-DRAMA MONDAY
Monday afternoons are currently drama-free, BBC management preferring to broadcast a repeat of a programme from Saturday. Poor show, BBC.

22 Jan 24

UK INTERNATIONAL AUDIO DRAMA FESTIVAL
I'm pleased to report that over 200 entries have been received for the 2024 Festival; double last year's total. Amazing! More information will be posted soon. Now for the mammoth job of sorting through the applications. The date of the festival is 25-29 March; venue is the Cathedral Lodge in the Cathedral Precinct in Canterbury. You can also listen online. Five days of listening.

21 Jan 24

A NOTE FROM DAVID ASHTON
"Like the buses, McLevy eps come in clusters. Jan 25th (Burns Night!) and Feb 1st , 14.15pm - two new eps have been recorded and will appear on those dates.

The audience response to the BBC R4 broadcasts will be very important to get more commissioned, so let them know what you think - and fingers crossed! "

16 Jan 24

RADIO PLAY BY GORDON HOUSE
I must commend to you the play which went out on New Year's Eve in the afternoon and which was great fun. It's is set in a radio drama studio; the production team is recording its annual Xmas pantomime. The play is on listen-again: Rumperstiltskin's Radio Drama Romance. The members of the production team are played by Jon Strickland, Clive Hayward, Rakie Ayola and Abbie Andrews; the actors are played by Neil Summerville, Tracy Wiles, Lizzie Burder and Will Howard. The music was composed by David Chilton and the lyrics by Gordon House, who also directed the production for Essential Productions (previously known as Goldhawk).

Gordon spent most of his life as a radio drama producer for the BBC, and ended up as head of the radio drama department. He described the play in his introduction as "a sort of love-letter to radio drama, though being a comedy, it is a far-from-accurate depiction of a couple of days in a radio studio" and the particular romantic entanglement in the play, as far as he's aware, has no real-life counterpart. "I have lifted some other incidents, both amusing and sad, directly from my own BBC experience".

2 Jan 24

NEW YEAR'S DAY
It's New Year's afternoon 2024; thought I'd switch the radio on to listen to a play .. and there's nothing there - just a repeat of a programme which went out a couple of days ago. This is disappointing, and not the first occasion that a national holiday has been drama-free.

1 Jan 24

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